While it might have been brief, there was a moment on Saturday, November 23, when the Calgary Flames were at the top of the Pacific Division with their 12–6–3 record after beating the Minnesota Wild. The Vegas Golden Knights reclaimed first in the division by the time Saturday concluded, but the bigger surprise was that the Flames were ever first at all.
To say no one expected the Flames to be where they are at right now going into the season is an understatement. However, they are indeed a top team in the standings and it’s time to ride it out and enjoy Calgary’s season. They are much more likely to be a playoff team than a lottery draft pick winner, so just going on odds alone, rooting for wins and a postseason might pay off a lot better than rooting for losses and a high draft pick.
Some of the numbers that have popped up as a part of this unexpected opening to the season are just as surprising as their record. Let’s take a look at the stats, courtesy of NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com. We’ll start with surface Calgary Flames stats and dive into some deeper metrics by the end of the post.
No top-end goal scorer for the Flames
The Flames do not have a top scorer on the roster at all this season. Jonathan Huberdeau and Matt Coronato have six goals apiece to lead the Flames. That has the duo tied for 87th in the league.
Calgary’s leading defencemen
On top of no top-end offence, Calgary’s leading scorer is currently defenceman Rasmus Andersson. He has 13 points right now with five goals and eight assists. Right after him in second? MacKenzie Weegar with 12 points (three goals, nine assists).
Andersson is tied for 116th in the NHL for scoring; Weegar is a little lower at 138th.
League-leading save percentage
The goalie tandem of Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar share the top spot for 5v5 save percentage. That number is an outstanding 0.943. The Wild are second with a 0.939 SV%. At all situations, the Flames drop to seventh place with 0.911.
Suffice it to say that Wolf should be in early Calder Trophy conversations.
Few wins are had in regulation
Calgary has just seven wins in regulation so far. Add in overtime wins and it’s still a single-digit number at nine and it takes their three shootout wins to round out their double-digit win total. If you look at the NHL standings right now, every team ahead of them has double-digit regulation wins, the lowest being the Toronto Maple Leafs with 11.
However, five teams below Calgary also have at least 10 regulation wins as well. You have to go to the 14th-place Edmonton Oilers before you see another team with less than 10 wins in regulation.
What’s more, if you expand the criteria to regulation and overtime wins (ROWs), Calgary’s aforementioned total of nine has them in the minority. There are 17 teams with double-digit ROWs right now—more than half the league and Calgary’s not one of them!
Barely leading in their games
Over their 21 games, the Flames have led for just 251:50. That’s good for 30th in the league ahead of only the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators. Note that the Flames are eighth in the NHL standings, while these teams are 29th and 30th.
Looking at time spent leading per 60 minutes of play, a.k.a. over a full-time game, the Flames have averaged 11:59 of ice time playing with a lead. Playing less than 12 minutes a game with a lead across a quarter season while ending up with a 12–6–3 record is actually absurd.
Time spent tied or trailing
Even if the Flames don’t lead a lot, their record could make more sense if they spent more time tied, and that turns out to be the case. A whopping 570:50 of ice time has been played at a tie game for the Flames, which has them second behind the New York Islanders’ 573:37. Calgary averages out to 27:10 per game tied. For context, 15 teams spend less than 20 minutes a game in a tied state for better (leading) or for worse (trailing).
Taking a look at time spent trailing, the Flames don’t exactly fare much better. They’ve trailed for 464:28 so far this season, putting them at 12th in the league in this regard. Being a bottom-half team in terms of playing down at least a goal shouldn’t translate to being a top-ten team in the standings, but here the Flames are.
Finally, for the last bit of context, they spend 22:07 per 60 minutes of play trailing. Seven teams in the league spend just 15 minutes or less trailing on average, the Wild leading with an otherworldly 9:28 spent trailing per game.
A sight to behold
These are just a small selection of stats that make up Calgary’s season so far. Some are simply surprising and others are completely mind-melting oddities.
There’s no telling what this team can do this season. We’re all just along for the ride.
